"Debt" is a religious word-- and it's a secular word-- and the truth is, we don't like it. Do you remember when-- almost universally-- that phrase in the Lord's Prayer read, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us"? Again, that's from the King James translation. "Trespassing" is, technically, walking on somebody else's property -- intruding on them. We started using "debts" in this prayer after the Revised Standard translation came out.
Those translators more accurately captured the meaning of the Greek word. Along that line, I read a recent article, which was making a strong case for using the word "sin" in place of either trespasses or debts. We would be saying, "forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us". The author of that article insists that that is what we are really praying for-- and he's right. But that wouldn't be true to the original text. The word translated "debts" is not even close to the words that are translated "sin" anywhere in the New Testament. We can't go around taking those kind of liberties with language. Suppose your banker-- the one who holds the mortgage on you house, decided to take those kind of liberties with language, and decided to change the word "debt" to "sin"-- and went about describing you as a "sinner". He wouldn't do that, of course, because he might be sued for liable. But, that's the kind of bind we're in with this word-- or concept of debt -- obligation -- sin -- that confronts us in both these texts this morning. That's the kind of situation that life confronts us with as well. We have to deal with our "debts", or whatever we're going to finally label this concept.
If I understand Paul correctly, he's dealing with a hypothetical question that the Church in Rome had a right to ask. This is his only letter to a Church he didn't found. The Church at Rome had a right to wonder why Paul was writing to them. So he deals with that right up front-- and in the most peculiar way. He says, "I'm obligated to you-- indebted to you-- I owe you!" It's as if he were answering a pulpit committee that had the foresight to ask about his financial and life management. And he's saying, "Am I in debt so as to embarrass me? I sure am. I owe everybody from the cultured to the crude; from the wise to the foolish; from the good to the bad. Why, if I lived a thousand years I could not pay back what I owe." What he was really saying, of course, is that that is the human condition-- we are always in debt and that no one can say that he owes no one. We are born owing so much that no one ever gets clear of obligations.
Many of the special days that we set aside remind us of these unpaid obligations. Mothers Day and Fathers day remind us that much was done for us during those years of dependency-- sacrifices were made of which we knew little. We try to give something back on those special days -- and even when the loved ones are no longer with us, we still try to give them honor in loving memory. We set aside special days in our national life-- Memorial Day, Independence Day, Presidents Day, and so on, because we know we have received a heritage-- that we are indebted to our past. There are cultures in which ancestors are literally worshiped-- and other cultures which fall short of actual worship, but hold their ancestors-- particularly their parents-- in a special place.
The Japanese, for instance, have a concept called "ON" which holds that the debt of the child to the parents can never be paid. One attempts to honor the debt by passing on to their own children, the love and care and direction received from the parents. But, the concept of "ON" holds that we only "honor" the debt-- we never discharge it.
Our Gospel lesson for Sunday contains a powerful story about forgiveness. It is couched in temporal language and is again a parable of remarkable contrast. The first servant, initially forgiven by the King, owed an enormous debt. Credit card companies, if they had existed in his day, would have dropped him long before he accumulated this kind of debt. In contrast, the servant owed him a very manageable debt, but lacked the resources to pay his obligation at that moment. He asked for "mercy", for time to make good on his obligation, but that was not granted.
You are encouraged to email Pastor Wayne Riggs with your questions or comments on this message riggsaw@earthlink.net.
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